Wednesday, May 25, 2011

As it transpired, six days of heaving up my toes after the massive surgeries of '09 [ because no-one had made the connection that I was having what is euphemistically referred to as an 'adverse reaction' to morphine / oxycontin, as a result of which, they kept me well topped up with more of the same ] didn't do my then newly eviscerated insides any favours

quelle suprise !!

anyway, the net result was last weeks reprise repair of some of the same portions of my battered carcass ...

Apparently I am something of an anaesthetist's nightmare now [ three of the fetching, red alert bracelets, each with multiple entries ] ... there were no general anaesthetics that he was willing to risk so I had a spinal.

As promised, I don't remember anything between having the ice cold pink stuff washed over my back and waking up with everything below the bellybutton not answering directions.It was a very strange experience as bits and pieces came back on line.At one point I could make my legs respond, but not the blocks of heavy ice that were subbing for my feet/toes and tush.

There were no private rooms available initially, so I had the 'pleasure' of sharing with a locally notorious, extraordinarily demanding, little old lady who was both physically and verbally incontinent and deaf [ loudloudloud tv] , and a fragile young lady going through some health and lifestyle issues that were totally none of my or any one else's business, but which, because of the flimsy illusion of privacy offered by a drawn curtain, we were all fully aware of.

After three days of feeling like a voyeur [ and 2 hours sleep a night due to little old lady's nocturnal wanderings ] I was less than sparkling, so one particular staff member iniatiated the opening of a closed 4-bed ward just for me.

It would have inconvenienced the cleaning staff who suddenly had one more bathroom to cope with, but, to tell you the truth, I was past caring.

A couple of days of peace and quiet ensued and I came home on Monday.

I'm trying to behave: bedrest with periods of moving around, trying not to 'just pick up this' or 'move that' and to find the balance between adequate pain medication [ I am invincible, I can do anything ... ] and somewhat less than adequate [ owowowowowow ]It's a delicate dance known, I now realise, to all who have ever had to recover from major surgery.

I am:reading [ Cassandra Clare: City of Glass, and during the last week, Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs, Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell and Side Jobs by Jim Butcher ]

knitting [ currently a scarf for Nadie - hospital knitting was a shawl from last week's alpaca/samoyed, now temporarily on hold until I am up to spinning some more ]

and catching up on 3 seasons of NCIS

and you should all make yourselves a pair of these [ fabulous freebie pattern from Mindie ].

Pattern: 19 row slippers from Knitting If Not EccentricYarn: vintage Thorobred Celtic 12 ply /bulky pure wool from New ZealandNeedles: KP Options 8mmMods: I used a slip1, k2tog, psso as the left leaning double decrease instead of the SSSK, and added a few rows of garter at the cuff before casting off.

and the colour is actually not as grey blue as this nightime picture would imply. It's both clearer and brighter.

Friday, May 20, 2011

As some of you may know, mum went in for surgery yesterday (re-doing part of what was done 18 months ago). She has come out of it very well, and will most likely be home on Sunday. In the meantime, anyone local who wishes to visit her at Castlemaine hospital is welcome to do so.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

Just quickly[ because Blogger has been temperamental, and also it's past time for me to jump in the shower and do all those things associated with getting on with my day ]

this is 220 metres of pale blue-grey alpaca from the back room at BWM with some of last week's wonderful white [obviously] Samoyed. This was seasoned with a hint of Wendy Dennis' dark brown raw Polwarth fleece.Not the easiest mix to work with, but my fondness for working with alpaca stood me in good stead with the puppy dawg wool which has a similar feel and 'handleability' to the alpaca.

The whole lot was lightly drum carded, before spinning on my Sheridan Celtic

... initially the Celtic and I were having some 'issues' but a clean-and-oil in all the right places worked wonders for her 'tude. Shouldn't be surprised I guess. A good oiling does me the world of good :)Anyway, the resultant yarn varies quite a bit in weight, mainly dependant on whether it was the stuff I spun on Saturday night, before I figured out the problems with the wheel, or yesterday's lot.Some of it is almost an aran/worsted, most is about what we Aussies would call 8ply [ DK or Sport ] and some of it is about sock/4ply.

Yarn with character !!

and now I'm late ... buggerit

EDITED TO ADD:

Okay so here are the thoughts that occurred after I pushed 'publish':

The yarn is a 2ply construction. Only one of those plies is the alpaca/samoyed/polwarth mix and the other is the carded alpaca. You can hardly see the dark brown wool but it has added a certain little extra something.The magnificent animals whose wool it is are the Aussie Champion 'Taj' and his mum 'Grace'. If you'd like to find out more about them, you'll find the Snowbrook Samoyeds here

Thursday, May 12, 2011

So do you all remember me mentioning the flash sing at the IGA during the State Festival ?Here 't'is [ most of it anyway - filmed on someone's phone, so all things considered the quality's not too bad ]The sharp of eye may be able to find me in the midst of the pack but poor Nadie, being somewhat vertically challenged, is invisible.

Some of the more "innovative" harmonies were supplied by shoppers who just had to join in.I can't decide whether my favourite bit is Judy & Janey dancing or the bemused 'checkout chick'

Monday, May 09, 2011

When Nadie and I were at the Goat Show over Easter, we had an intriguing conversation with a lovely lady who breeds Australian Champion Samoyeds about the possibility of spinning her dogs wool. She went on to order some Tupperware from Nadie, the delivery of which sort of clinched the need for a visit.

I mean reallytalk about your no brainer

Offer me free fibre and the chance to get up close and personal with a couple of the most stunning canines you are ever likely to see [ although you're NOT likely to see them because I failed signally to garner photographic evidence of their magnificence ... bad Catsmum ... BAD ]

and the day got even better as we managed to combine it with a return bout of baby boer goat snuzzling over at Emu Creekthis is actually a pic I took last week but they were just as cute today :)

a prettty good day all round then:Nadie and I got sniffed/slobbered on and muddied by assorted cats, dogs and goatsBear visited his Mummy and sister - but I forgot to buy them some special bones to celebrate Bear & Molly's third birthday on Wednesday [ again BAD BAD Catsmum! ]andthis is what a boxful of freshly shampooed-and-groomed dawg looks like

This isn't by any means the first time I've used Luxury, which is a nice, soft, machine washable little workhorse of a yarn with only one drawback. It grows like nobody's business the first time it hits water. Now if one happens to know that, one can [to a certain extent ] allow for it, but it does still make 'improvising' in this yarn a bit of a gamble size wise. This time, with the help of some swatching and some maths, I pretty much got the desired result ... even if The Girl does still think it's a little loose.

About Me

Walking the fine line between creativity and obsession on my 10 acres of bushland. I share my life with my severely autistic son, and also my daugher and son-in-law, 4 cats and 4 goats, a very small dog who apparently thinks he's a Rottweiler ... or a cat ... and a collection of fabrics and fibres that can be seen from space.